SOLUTION: Does anyone know how to go about this problem? The difference of two positive numbers is 3 and the sum of their squares is 65. Find the numbers.

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Question 214334: Does anyone know how to go about this problem? The difference of two positive numbers is 3 and the sum of their squares is 65. Find the numbers.
Answer by drj(1380)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Does anyone know how to go about this problem? The difference of two positive numbers is 3 and the sum of their squares is 65. Find the numbers.

Step 1. Let y be one positive and the larger number and x be the other positive and smaller number.

Step 2. The problem statement provides the following relationships or equations:

or (A)

(B)

Step 3. Substitute (A) into (B)





Step 4. Subtract 65 from both sides of equation.







Step 5. We can use the quadratic formula given as

where a=1, b=3, and c=-28

Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation with variable
Quadratic equation (in our case ) has the following solutons:



For these solutions to exist, the discriminant should not be a negative number.

First, we need to compute the discriminant : .

Discriminant d=121 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions: .




Quadratic expression can be factored:

Again, the answer is: 4, -7. Here's your graph:



Step 6. Based on the above steps, select 4 since we want a positive number.

With x=4, then y=3+4=7.

Check if





which is a true statement.

Step 7. ANSWER: The numbers are 4 and 7.

I hope the above steps were helpful.

For free Step-By-Step Videos on Introduction to Algebra, please visit http://www.FreedomUniversity.TV/courses/IntroAlgebra or for Trigonometry visit http://www.FreedomUniversity.TV/courses/Trigonometry.

And good luck in your studies!

Respectfully,
Dr J






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